A Gambling Man
by queenly
Summary: But love is a losing hand. Wishshipping.


**A/N: dedicated to a good friend. happy birthday even though im late.**

They rest flat atop his bed, atop calming sense of familiarity, when the question floats from lips quaking.

"Yuugi," Jounouchi breathes, lengthy and laggard, precise in his wording. "Do you know what it's like...to be in love?"

Yuugi, laying prone and stilled, fixes him with a wondrous stare. His fingers pause in their motions of scanning cards, devoting total contemplation to the query and its master. And after long agonizing moments of scrutiny, he answers.

"I don't know. Maybe." He shuffles his hand into a stack, cups it in a palm. "Why do you ask?"

"What's it like?" he wonders, claiming role as sole interrogator.

Yuugi blinks his doe eyes. "Well, good, I'd assume."

"Good?" A nod. _...Then why do I feel like complete garbage all the time?_

"Well," Yuugi says again, contradictive of his own words. " _Love_ is good. But crushes can be bad. Especially if the other person doesn't like you the same way."

Jounouchi notes the iridescence fleeing his irises, the way his tone fades to a mumble and drips with nostalgia. And Jounouchi believes he's astute, that he knows just who it is that is being melancholically alluded to; but Katsuya Jounouchi has never conformed to standard smarts, so what he thinks does not align so faultlessly with what the other does.

He does not speak; instead, glances absently though the cards that hide his fingertips from view. A stillness to the atmosphere- not quite a _stagnancy_ , yet has potential to be -plays to the discussion's fragility.

"Are you..?" Not so much does he halt his words by purpose, but cannot find tools to continue them. "Like, Anzu?"

Jounouchi rues the comment when he notes the way his expression contorts; clenched lips and tight shoulders, countenance dusted with rose.

"Mm...not really," he breathes out in what sounds like sighing. "Believe it or not, I'm not keen on remembering my middle school self."

And Jounouchi laughs at that- because, _God_ _damn_ , can he relate.

His uncharacteristic gloom takes a backseat to a sudden blitheness creeping up throat's base. He peers down to their game, as he's set to continue. He sets one card, plays another, but holds off on an attack; something tells him Yuugi would counter, and obliteration is something he cannot afford.

"So," he says, eyes darting over Yuugi's skillful fingers as they set an array of defense. "If you weren't thinkin' about Anzu...who _were_ you thinking of?"

As he is with all his endeavors, Yuugi is careful in his speech. "You didn't ask about crushes, you asked about love. I guess...I've ever only been _in love_ with, maybe, one person."

Jounouchi can practically hear the howls of his Panther Warrior as he slides it into his expanding graveyard. But- _fuck!_ -he'd a trap in its zone for half the game that most certainly would have saved his beast. Yuugi's throwing off his strategy, he concurs, in a different way than usual.

"Care to tell me who this one person is?" he asks in a tone that could be classified as offended. "I'm your best pal, after all. We aren't supposed to have any secrets."

"I know, Jou," he murmurs. "That's exactly why I _can't_."

"Why?" is the first note he can muster. His movements drip hesitance, until a burst of brash implodes in his joints, sending his remaining monster to rampage Yuugi's defense. "...It ain't me, is it?"

Instantly, he flips a trap. Negate Attack. "No!"

They're both flushing fresh; Jounouchi, because the idea'd been so harshly rejected, and Yuugi, because he hadn't meant such malice, and instinctively spit words to protect his mortified heart. Swallowing, Jounouchi offers indicative head nod, and Yuugi draws.

Laggard and precise, he flips a card from defense to attack, running tongue's tip over bottom lip. He doesn't expect further exchange of intimate speech, and rightfully so, as Jounouchi's mind is buzzing, vying between his next move and the aridity to his eyes.

"...I was just kiddin', anyways," he defends. Yuugi's no fool, but he nods stiffly despite it.

And, since Jounouchi's side of the field is near desolate, Yuugi declares a direct attack worth nine hundred points. "So was I."

Jounouchi accepts this, accepts that he's now down to his last stretch of Life Points, accepts that there's no way-

" _Huh?_ "

Slowly, the gaucheness breaks way to twitching muscle, and Yuugi shoots him a bemused smile, setting his hand down. "Your move."


End file.
